Idle Gossip

by Renee Patrick

Overview

Gossip columnist Lorna Whitcomb knows every dirty secret in Hollywood . . . except who killed her tipster. Sleuthing duo Lillian Frost and Edith Head investigate in this head-turning mystery.

1940, Los Angeles. Hollywood's famous gossip columnist, Lorna Whitcomb, has summoned Lillian Frost and her sleuthing partner, costume designer extraordinaire Edith Head, to her office. Lorna's 'leg man' Sam Simcoe - the man who finds the scandalous material for her column - is in trouble. Tipster Glenn Hoyle has been murdered, and Sam is the LAPD's only suspect. But Sam didn't just find Glenn's body when he paid him a visit. Hiding in a wastebasket was a list of three names - a starlet, a producer and a director - and Sam's sure Glenn had an explosive story on all of them. Was it just idle gossip, or could it explain his murder?

Lorna wants Edith and Lillian to find Glenn's killer before her powerful enemies strike. In a town full of secrets, Edith and Lillian must expose the dirtiest one of all: who killed Glenn Hoyle?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727850492
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Series:	A Lillian Frost and Edith Head mystery , #5
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

Renee Patrick is the pseudonym for married authors Rosemarie and Vince Keenan. Rosemarie is a research administrator and a poet. Vince is a screenwriter and a journalist. Both native New Yorkers, they currently live in Seattle, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

'Hollywood history buffs will have fun’  – Publishers Weekly

'The authors . . . do a fine job of capturing the spirit of 1940s Hollywood and its gossip-driven subculture’  – Booklist

‘Entertaining . . . Patrick elegantly weaves Hollywood gossip and history into the well-crafted plot. This is a tailor-made treat for film buffs'  – Publishers Weekly on The Sharpest Needle

From the Publisher

2022-01-26
Summer 1940 finds costume designer Edith Head and her pal Lillian Frost doing some snooping that’s beneath even gossip columnist Lorna Whitcomb.

“Eyes on Hollywood,” Lorna’s column, relies on material gathered by her legman, Sam Simcoe, and Sam relies on information dispensed by tipsters like Glenn Hoyle. When Glenn is beaten to death and Sam, who’s lurking conveniently nearby, is arrested for his murder, Lorna, fearing that her well may go dry, asks Edith and Lillian, who’ve acquired a certain reputation as investigators, to nose around in her place and find enough evidence to pin the tail on some different donkey. The two friends aren’t exactly hurting for activities. Edith has just been promoted to head of Paramount’s wardrobe department, and Lillian’s work as social secretary for wealthy, star-struck retired industrialist Addison Rice fills her days with resplendently obnoxious characters like Englishman Freddy Sewell, who was formerly employed (can you believe it?) by producer/director Alexander Korda. Even so, they agree to track down information about three people Hoyle evidently dug up dirt on: silent film director Vernon Reynolds, who’s now the maître d’ at Arturo’s; Mephistophelian wannabe producer Earl Lymangood; and Delia Carson, America’s sweetheart, who’s outraged her stage mother, Rhoda, by up and marrying bit player Arthur Davis. The pair manage to unearth the three targets’ not very interesting secrets with insulting ease, but learning what Hoyle knew doesn’t get them any closer to telling them who killed him. Nor does it prevent a second murder. Luckily, walk-ons by the likes of Orson Welles, Preston Sturges, and Barbara Stanwyck keep things lively.

The mystery is no more than serviceable, but the chatter, much of it based on fact, makes this rehash of the past shine.

Kirkus Reviews

A solid mystery, but it's the imaginative blending of real and fictional history that really sells the book . . . The emergence of Head as a fully fleshed character, along with evermore-engaging, Hollywood-based stories, has made [this series] something quite special

Booklist on The Sharpest Needle

The story, concerning a bank robbery, is genuinely gripping. Well done

Booklist on Script for Scandal